It’s Summer Olympics time! I have watched every Olympics since 1992. That’s when I fell madly in love with running and the drive of competition roared to full life within my belly. The Paris 2024 Olympics will start in 23 days and 8 hours from the time of this writing:

I have a countdown timer widget on my phone that shows me some of the most important upcoming events in my life (See picture). For someone like me, who is often moving at a hundred miles per hour, apps like this help me keep perspective on what matters most, as well as remind me of the pace I should be running in any given season of my life. 

While watching the Track and Field Olympic trials the past couple of weeks I saw something I had never seen before: pacesetters. I am familiar with pacesetters or pacemakers in car races, where a clearly labeled car starts in front of the other racers and keeps them going at a pace that is neither too slow nor too fast. It was the same for track and field. Some mid-distance and longer-distance races had a runner who would start ahead of the others to ensure that the pace was up to the standards. The main standard in the case of track and field is the “Olympic Standard.” Each event, both on the track and on the field, has an Olympic Standard, a baseline measurement that must be achieved to get your ticket punched to go to the Olympics. 

As I contemplated the Olympic Standard I began to ponder this race we call life. What is the “Heavenly Standard”? Who is my healthy life pacesetter? It’s no coincidence that the Apostle Paul used Olympic track and field as an analogy for the Christian life. He said, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things” (Philippians 3:15). The Christian life is truly an adventure when lived with this view! We are in a grand race for which we will be rewarded (or not ?). I think I will take Paul’s sports analogy into our current computer age and say that it’s more like an RPG video game…I’ll have to write about that another day!

American culture is inherently fast-paced. This is why one of the most important topics of current times hinges on the necessity of having one full day of rest each week! This was in fact modeled for humans by The Creator during The Creation (Genesis 2:2). In addition to having that day of rest, we also need a healthy life pacesetter! The “Heavenly Standard”…let’s call it the “Jesus Standard” instead, is to live each moment infused with ultimate meaning which only blooms through loving God and loving people.

As I began to pen this piece, I did not know where it would lead! I now see that, as all things lead, this too has led to the power of community. Jesus lived the Heavenly Standard. Jesus is the healthy life pacesetter. His is the pace we must live. We must live how He lived and follow as closely on his heels as possible. When we seek to run the race in this way we will find that we do not run alone! There are other Christ chasers with whom we will find ourselves running. They will be a source of strength and encouragement and a measurement of excellence by which we will be sharpened and taken to the next level.

A Tool for Healthy Life Pacesetting

I always like to offer a bit of practical advice, something tactile that you can put into practice NOW. The app that I am using, Eventimehttps://apps.apple.com/us/app/eventime-event-countdown/id1489533464, is a tool that I think has helped me stay on track and keep a healthy life pace. It’s easy to live life in a whirlwind. One stabling force for me is the first screen of my phone on which I see the upcoming important events. Ironically, I began by mentioning that I have the Olympics as one such event. I now see that the real power of this app is in helping ground me in the important movements of my community. The anniversaries and birthdays, the game nights, and holiday parties. These are the “islands in time” that punctuate life and make life so livable.  

(PS – I am in no way affiliated, nor am I being paid, by Eventime! It’s just one of the tools that today I saw in a new light and wanted to share.)

GODSPEED! (It’s the only speed worth going)

Morteltyme